UN, businesses to expand cooperation on crises

Sep 19, 2017

The city of Jeremie on the western tip of Haiti suffered the full force of Hurricane Matthew in October 2016, leaving tens of thousands stranded, and wind and water damage across wide areas. Photo Logan Abassi UN/MINUSTAH

New York — United Nations aid and development chiefs, government officials, and business leaders today pledged to expand cooperation in preparing for and responding to crises through new networks engaging the private sector.

“We cannot afford not to involve the private sector in humanitarian response,” UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Achim Steiner said. “Some 43 percent of people now live in areas especially vulnerable to natural and man-made disasters and crises or in areas of conflict, and by 2030 that number is expected to climb to a staggering 62 percent.”

“Economic losses from natural disasters alone stand at US$314 billion annually. These challenges pose major risks to the private sector, and small and medium-sized companies are especially vulnerable,” he said.

Resulting risks to the world’s poorest people are high: Micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises account for 60-70 percent of all jobs globally and are the main income providers for people earning less than US$10 per day.

“Over recent years, global humanitarian needs have reached record highs,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said. “Collectively, needs are outpacing the ability of the international humanitarian system to respond. This has shifted how we need to do business, and underscored the need for new and strong partnerships with the private sector.”

In its first year, CBi supported private sector-led networks in 13 locations: Côte d’Ivoire, Fiji, Haiti, Kenya/East Africa, Madagascar, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Pacific, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Vanuatu. Eight of those networks mobilized in response to emergencies in the last year, and CBi plans to expand to 40 countries by 2020.

“Supporting a more systematic and sustainable engagement of the local private sector in disaster risk reduction and humanitarian aid is a step in the right direction,” EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides said. “It can make an important contribution to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the humanitarian system.”

“The United Nations Global Compact will now also join the group of core supporters of CBi to further create and leverage synergies through our networks and programs—like the Business for Humanitarian Action and Peace platform and the Global Compact Local Networks,” UN Global Compact Executive Director and CEO Lise Kingo said.